The Awesomer introduces us to this art exhibit by FudouKamui, a student at the Xi’An Academy of Fine Arts in northwestern China. Pay and the machine will dispense one of the ceramic plates, each of which has a different price. When the plate hits the bottom port, it breaks.
The exhibit is subtly titled “This Is the Proof of Our Stupidity.”
I don’t get it, but perhaps if I buy a few more plates, I will. I mean, eventually, I have to win the game, right?
This is a Collignon projection. How does that work? I'll explain: [insert math here].
Got it?
It’s very straightforward and, thanks to the work of Florian Ledermann, adjustable. At his website, Map Projection Playground, you can experiment with dozens of different world map projections, all of which distort the curved Earth on a plane in different ways. You can also see all of these different types of projections on a single page here.
Ledermann knows his business. He’s engineer and computer programmer who teaches cartography at the Technical University in Vienna. Ledermann executed this project for students in his course titled “Cartographic and Geodetic Foundations for Planners.”
-via Marilyn Bellamy
Many traditional martial arts of eastern Asia have spread outside of that region and become very popular. But one martial art that has not gained much traction outside of Japan is jukendo, the art of bayonet fighting.
The bayonet has fallen out of priority in recent years. But its use was once viewed as an essential skill for an infantryman. In the 1840s, inspired by watching Dutch soldiers drilling, Japanese soldiers began training in it. During the Meiji Era, the Japanese armed forces required formal instruction for soldiers. It grew into a martial art called jukendo or juken-jutsu, which means “the way of the bayonet.”
As the Japanese Empire expanded during the early Twentieth Century, so did the prominence of jukendo. During World War II, the Japanese government systemized the mass training of the students in jukendo.
The Allied occupiers banned jukendo after 1945, but the ban was lifted in 1950. Perhaps 40,000 people in Japan practice jukendo under the governance of the All Japan Jukendo Federation. Most are members or veterans of the Japanese Self Defense Forces. Jukendo still carries an association with Japan’s militarism of a past era, making it controversial in modern times.
In the above video, you can watch a demonstration of this unique martial art with training implements that are shaped to resemble rifles with fixed bayonets.
Sources:
Bennett, Alexander C.. Kendo : Culture of the Sword, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central.
“Children Learn Ancient Art of the Bayonet.” Dominion Post, 15 Apr. 2017, p. B3. EBSCOhost.
“Roundup: Japan’s New Education Guidelines Condemned for Adding Wartime Military Training Item.” Philippines News Agency, 3 Apr. 2017. EBSCOhost.
-via reddit
Matthew T. Hall is the opinion editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. He recently received this letter from a long-time reader. The correspondent writes that, 25 years ago, they were homeless and in desperate need of a job. Back then, the best option to find job openings was in the classifieds published in the Sunday edition.
The newspaper lost money, but it was the paperboy who suffered for it, as the minor crime required extra unpaid labor. It’s very late, but the writer has a conscience that has never been freed from the guilt until now.
-via Josh Hadro
There’s something otherworldly about the pottery of Keiko Masumoto. This Japanese artist, who studied and worked in Kyoto, has become famous around the world for her groundbreaking ceramic sculptures that break out of traditional forms for pots and plates. Other creatures and structures erupt from them, often showing entire tiny worlds within inanimate pots.
Recently, Dane Hirst, a cameraman with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, gathered crocodile footage at a crocodile park in northern Australia.
Nota bene: crocodile parks are a thing in Australia. Don’t ask me why.
Anyway, he piloted a drone over the surface of the water of a lagoon when one of the crocodiles leaped out of the water and snatched the crunchy drone out of the air.
The crew was able to recover the drone. It will not be serviceable again, but the video card was fine. The footage is invigorating to watch and a reminder to stay out of Australia.
-via Dave Barry
YouTuber Not Just Bikes is really excited about the Dutch approach to urban design. In this video, he explains why the way that sidewalks in the Netherlands are optimal for pedestrian and bicyclist safety.
The key feature is called “continuous sidewalks.” In the United States, the most common design for an intersection between pedestrian and motorized traffic is a crosswalk in which the sidewalk lowers and then disappears into the road. People walking across a street are entering the territory of cars.
In the Netherlands, it’s far more common for the sidewalk to remain at the same level and for the road to rise to the sidewalk. Cars crossing are entering the territory of pedestrians. Because there’s a rise, the sidewalk acts as a speedbump so that drivers are encouraged to slow down.
-via Nag on the Lake
New Scientist (paywall) reports that the US Navy has acquired a patent for a handheld device called AHAD. This invention has a long-range microphone that picks up people's speech and plays it back at a slight time delay which can disrupt the target from speaking intelligibly.
The delay--which is 200 milliseconds long--is timed in such a way that is not simply annoying to the speaker, but also, as a neuroscientist explains, actually prevents the target from being able to communicate verbally.
The range is limited to about 30 meters. It can affect only a small target area, which means that listeners may not understand why the speaker has become unintelligible.
I can't wait until this invention reaches the civilian market!
-via Dave Barry | Photo: US Navy
This mask design is now going viral and Sora News 24 is on the case. It combines the modern pandemic aesthetic of covering one's face while providing eye protection from bright lights. The shiny mirror exterior looks futuristic, which I guess is good enough until we get the flying cars that we were promised.
I built a mechanical table with a hidden table top for puzzles. pic.twitter.com/BtZcuzw4EO
— Simone Giertz (@SimoneGiertz) September 29, 2021
Roboticist Simone Giertz loves to assemble jigsaw puzzles. And if you've spent lockdown time on one, then you know that they take up a lot of room. Giertz applied her genius to this problem and designed an elegant table that is perfect for jigsaw assembly. Yes, there might have been simpler solutions, but Giertz says, "...I was, like, no, let's make it more complicated and overengineered than that."
It was two gearing systems taken from bicycles. The first rolls the top on and off. The second lifts and lowers the surface. So in addition to protecting the puzzle from damage during the long assembly process, the table space remains useful for other purposes.
Here is a long, often funny video illustrating the demanding build process.
J. Kenji López-Alt, a professional chef, has spent years studying the fine art of boiling eggs. Although he written about the subject in the past, López-Alt is updating us with the latest research.
And, yes, he means data-driven research. He's not speaking from just anecdotal experience.
López-Alt informs us that the age of the egg doesn't really matter, nor does adding vinegar or salt help make the eggs easier to peel. What does help is setting the eggs in the water after it's boiling to prevent the white from fusing to the shell. He also suggests using a needle to puncture the air pocket to relieve pressure inside the egg during cooking.
In this demonstration video, López-Alt demonstrates his perfect 9-minute eggs, which peel cleanly and without any difficulty.
-via Laughing Squid
The Liberal was a British journal which published between 2004 and 2012. For one of its earliest issues, the editors invited a contribution by Michael Finnissey, a British musical composer and pianist. The music blog 5:4 reports that the subject of that issue was space exploration. So Finnissey’s response was an ensemble piece that, in written notation form, resembles arms of the rings of Saturn.
Finnissey titled his work Back on Earth, inspired by childhood memories of his father saying, “Michael, please come back to Earth.” Perhaps, in this composition, we can hear the sounds of a celestial journey from Saturn to Earth. Listen and judge for yourself:
-via Futility Closet
Australia is sometimes called "British Texas". That's fair, but I'd like to propose that Florida is "Australian America," if for no other reason than due to the extremely dangerous wildlife.
Florida Man Roy Bonilla recorded video of fellow Florida Man Eugene Bozzi capturing an alligator by maneuvering it into a trash can. Toward the end, the gator fights with all his might to escape. Bozzi did not, though, kill and eat the gator (they taste like fish, by the way), but instead rolls the trash can down to a lake to set it free.
Yes, the Philly Taco is exactly what it looks like. It is a quintessentially Philadelphia experience, where the city of brotherly love lovingly combines two perfect food items. Despite the seemingly simple recipe and the cheap paper plates, though, the creation of a Philly Taco is an art that has been carefully refined since its invention over ten years ago.
The first step, the Philadelphia Inquirer explains, is to visit Jim's Steaks, which is famous for its cheesesteak sandwiches. Some creativity in the toppings is permissible with the Philly Taco while remaining canonically correct. What is essential is to immediately proceed 436 feet away to Lorenzo and Sons' Pizza. There, buy a huge slice of cheese pizza and wrap it around the sandwich. Fans disagree about whether the taco should be eaten from one end or cut down the middle, but they agree that the combination is awesome.
-via Atlas Obscura | Photo: Al Dia
The city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, calls this special bus pass a 'health ticket". You can pay a regular fare or do twenty squats in front of a camera. If you do so, you get to ride for free for the next seven days.
The news website Romania Insider reports that this service, which is so far available at only one station in the city, has been very popular. When it was installed last year, users completed about one million squats total over a three month period. The system has been reinstalled and is again available for residents who would like an incentive to exercise.
Would you use this service if it was available in your area?
-via Debby Witt | Photo: Sports Festival
